Description

The Calculate Density task creates a density layer from point features by spreading known quantities of some phenomenon (represented as attributes of the points) across the raster. The result is a layer of areas classified from least dense to most dense.

Calculating densities of hospitals within a county. The result layer will show areas with high and low accessibility to hospitals, and this information can be used to decide where new hospitals should be built.

Identifying areas that are at high risk of forest fires based on historical locations of forest fires.

Locating communities that are far from major highways in order to plan where new roads should be constructed.

For point input, each point should represent the location of some event or incident, and the result layer represents a count of the incident per unit area. A higher density value in a new location means that there are more points near that location. In many cases, the result layer can be interpreted as a risk surface for future events. For example, if the inputs points represent location of lightning strikes, the result layer can be interpreted as a risk surface for future lightning strikes.

Request parameters

Parameter

Details

inputPointOrLineFeatures

(Required)

The feature layer used to calculate density. The dataset can either be point, line, or polygon features.

Syntax: This parameter can be specified as one of the following: a URL to a feature service layer with an optional filter to select specific features, or a feature collection.

Specifies the number of incidents at each location. The domain can either be an integer or float field.

Syntax: A string that represents a field name. If each point represents a single incident, do not provide a count field.

Example:

"countField": "myCountField"

searchDistance

The size of the neighborhood within which to calculate the density.

For example, if you provide a search distance of 1800 meters, the density of any location in the output layer is calculated based on features that are within 1800 meters of the location. Any location that does not have any incidents within 1800 meters will receive a density value of zero.

If no distance is provided, a default will be calculated that is based on the locations of the input features and the values in the count field (if a count field is provided).

Syntax: A linear unit specifying the distance and units.

Supported units: Meters | Kilometers | Feet | Miles

Example:

"searchDistance" : {"distance":"60","units":"Meters"}

outputAreaUnits

The desired output units of the density values.

Supported units: SQUARE_KILOMETERS | SQUARE_MILES

The default is based on the units specified in your profile. If the units are set to Metric, the default is SQUARE_KILOMETERS. If your profile is set to US Standard, the default is SQUARE_MILES.

Example:

{"outputAreaUnits" : "SQUARE_KILOMETERS"}

outputCellSize

Specify the cell size to use for the output raster.

Supported units: Meters | Kilometers | Feet | Miles

The default value for this parameter is the same as the analysis environment.

Example:

"outputCellSize": {distance":"60","units":"Meters"}

context

Contains additional settings that affect task execution. This task has the following settings:

Snap Raster (snapRaster): The output raster will have its cells aligned with the specified snap raster.

Cell Size (cellSize): The output raster will have the resolution specified by cell size.

Mask (mask): Only cells that fall within the analysis mask will be considered in the operation.

f

The response format. The default response format is html.

Values: html | json

Response

When you submit a request, the task assigns a unique job ID for the transaction.

{
"jobId": "<unique job identifier>",
"jobStatus": "<job status>"
}

After the initial request is submitted, you can use the jobId to periodically check the status of the job and messages as described in Checking job status. Once the job has successfully completed, you use the jobId to retrieve the results. To track the status, you can make a request of the following form:

https://<raster analysis tools url>/CalculateDensity/jobs/<jobId>

When the status of the job request is esriJobSucceeded, you can access the results of the analysis by making a request of the following form:

Example usage

JSON response syntax

The response returns the outputRaster output parameter, which has properties for parameter name, data type, and value. The content of value is always the output raster dataset itemId and the image service URL.